Asian Movie Reviews

Glory To The Filmmaker (2007)

Takeshi Kitano is a director that’s best known for his gangster movies and he makes a statement saying he wants to ditch making those kind of movies and try something new. We see him attempting a variety of different genres but everything turns out to be a failure before he decides on the setting for his latest venture – a sci-fi comedy drama called The Promised Day. The plot of this movie involves an asteroid which is scheduled to slam into the Earth in a week’s time. Scientists discover that this asteroid has 2 faces on it resembling a mother and daughter which the movie cuts back to on Earth. Kumiko and Kimiko are two eccentric characters who are in debt and are on the lookout for the latest scam to make money. Their latest money-making scheme involves a president of a company and his consort Kichijoji who they mistake to be his son because he dresses like a school kid. The movie charts the women’s madcap adventures with a plan to get Kimiko to marry Kichijoji .

I’m sure some people have no idea that Takeshi Kitano was a full-time comedian before he turned his hand to being a director in the 90’s and started making yakuza movies. Even though those movies have been successful, he always wanted to make a comedy movie. His first attempt at a comedy ‘Getting Any’ wasn’t that well received (I thought it was quite funny!) so he went back to the yakuza genre. He tried again at making a dark comedy movie with ‘Takeshis’ which audiences liked so then he came round to doing this movie. In this part mockumentary, part sci-fi comedy, Kitano is making fun of himself once more. Whilst ‘Takeshis’ poked fun at the work he’s done so far, this movie makes fun at genres that Kitano hasn’t tried out in his movies yet. The first half which sees Kitano attempting various genres such as a period drama and a j-horror movie is funny but it’s during the second half when The Promised Day is played that the movie really comes into its own. It’s wacky, insane, totally off-the-wall and some of the stuff that went on in this movie did go over my head although I’m sure that Japanese audiences understood everything very well. The mother and daughter combination (Kumiko and Kimiko) are the main characters in this movie and are very eccentric with one carrying a giraffe doll on her back and the other has a goose puppet on her arm. There are some genuinely funny sequences in the movie. One such scene takes place at a restaurant where Kumiko and Kimiko are trying another scam in which hope to get a free meal by placing a cockroach in their meal and complaining about it. Unfortunately a couple of wrestlers are eating in the restaurant at the same time and find a cockroach in their meal. When they start to complain a couple of burly muscular waiters emerge from the back. What follows is a wild wrestling fight inside the restaurant which spills out outside in which the wrestlers are destroyed by the waiters. The expression on the faces of Kumiko and Kimiko with all this chaos going on all around them is priceless and they decide to drop their plan! Another scene at a karate dojo is also very funny. If the scenes above sounds like something you might find humorous then you will enjoy the movie. Not everything works in this movie mind you but the majority of the jokes do hit their mark. Unfortunately the movie does run out of steam by the end.

Takeshi Kitano plays himself in the movie or should I say the Beat Takeshi character when he was a manzai comedian and he carries around a lifesize doll of himself which takes his place in certain situations when he feels under pressure, uncomfortable or in a tight squeeze (i.e the doll gets beaten up by some thugs or thrown over the side of a bridge)! Kayoko Kishimoto and Ann Suzuki are fantastic as the mother and daughter Kumiko and Kimiko. The rest of the supporting cast are actors that Kitano regularly employs in his movies.

Glory To The Filmmaker is sure to divide opinion but then again I don’t think this movie is for everybody. He’s made this for his fans and only they will appreciate this movie. It all depends if you like his style of comedy whether you’ll enjoy this movie or not. The viewer gets an idea of what type of humour Kitano likes and how his imagination works. I love how he makes fun of himself in such a self-deprecating manner. I found the movie to be surreal, rather unique and very funny.